Prasar Bharati CEO Jawahar Sircar elected ABU vice president

Jawahar Sircar, CEO, Prasar Bharati, has been elected as the vice president of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU).

A Prasar Bharati release said Tuesday that Sircar had also led a three-member contingent to Seoul General Assembly in 2012 and got Doordarshan re-elected as technical bureau member and the All India Radio (AIR) to the ABU Administrative Council unanimously.

Rightfully, being a member of Administrative Council, Prasar Bharati then eligible for ABU vice-presidentship, was however, trounced by Turkey Radio And Television Corporation, which had taken a delegation of 20 against India's two.

Sircar's election as ABU vice president is attributable to India's emerging image backed by the bold administrative initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as also Mr. Sircar's known administrative acumen.

India needs to be part of decision making in Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union(ABU), a non profit, non govt. professional association of broadcasters, where India is a founder member since 1964 with AIR and Doordarshan.

The ABU has 264 members in 61 countries reaching a potential audience of 3.5 billion people providing a forum promoting collective interests of television and radio broadcasters internationally funded primarily by members.

The ABU remains the hub of harmonisation of technical broadcasting standards and systems, skill and technological development as also information exchange.

The ABU is the third largest of world's eight broadcasting unions, representing largest geographic region in the world.

For the current Macau Convention and General Assembly, Prasar Bharati deputed Mr. Sircar. Even this year, the Indian delegation comprised of only two members with one adviser.

The delegation from other member countries was much larger. Major countries like Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea have 40+ delegates and also delegates from smaller countries are pretty big - Malaysia-30, Srilanka-9, Afghanistan 8, Bhutan-5, Bangladesh -7, Mangolia-7, Thailand-35, Turkmenistan 15, Kazakstan-6, Singapore-13.